John Francis de, was born of an ancient family at Nevers, on the 20th November 1748. He was educated at the military school of Paris, and devoted himself particularly to the study of the languages. At the age of seventeen he was sent by the government to Strasbourg, where he studied public law under the celebrated Professor Kugler. Having spent three years there, he received a commission in the regiment of Auvergne. When scarcely twenty, he was appointed secretary of legation at the diet of Ratisbon; and after having been employed during four years in the discharge of various diplomatic functions, he returned to his regiment, where he continued to occupy himself with the study of public law. In 1777 he went as first secretary to M. de Montmorin, who was appointed ambassador to the court of Madrid. Eight years afterwards, Montmorin having been recalled, Bourgoing remained eighteen months at Madrid in the character of chargé d'affaires. It was during this long residence in Spain that he collected the materials for his Tableau de l'Espagne Moderne. On his return to France in 1787, he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to Hamburg; and, in 1791, he went in a similar capacity to Madrid, where he remained until the month of March 1793. Having again returned to France during the most troublesome period of the Revolution, he retired to his native town, where for some time he filled the first municipal office. The revolution of the 18th Brumaire (10th November 1799) drew him at length from the bosom of privacy. In 1801 the first consul appointed him minister plenipotentiary at the court of Denmark, and afterwards at that of Sweden. In 1808 he was sent as minister plenipotentiary to Saxony. At Dresden he was attacked by the complaint which terminated his life; and he died at Carlsbad, whither he had repaired for the benefit of the waters, on the 20th of July 1811, at the age of sixty-three.

Bourgoing was a man of the most disinterested integrity; and he died poor, although he had been employed in various situations in which he might have found opportu- nities of acquiring wealth. He left a family of five children, three sons and two daughters. The following is a list of his publications: 1. Nouveau Voyage en Espagne, ou Tableau de l'état actuel de cette Monarchie, first published in 1789, 3 vols., 8vo. The fourth edition augmented, was published under the title of Tableau de l'Espagne Moderne, in 1807, in 3 vols., 8vo, with an atlas. This is the best known and most esteemed of his works, and has been translated into various languages. 2. Mémoires Historiques et Philosophiques sur Pie VI. et sur son Pontificat, 2 vols., 8vo, 1798; second edition, 1800. Some prefer the first edition of this work, although the second is continued to the death of Pius VI. 3. Histoire des Flibustiers, traduite de l'Allemand de M. d'Archenholtz, Paris 1804, 8vo. 4. Histoire de l'Empereur Charlemagne, traduction libre de l'Allemand du Prof. Hegewisch, 1805, 8vo. 5. Correspondance d'un jeune Militaire, ou Memoires du Marquis de Lusigny et d'Hortense de S. Just, 1778, 2 vols., 12mo. Bourgoing translated some other works from the German, and published several tracts of little importance. In 1808 he published an edition of the Travels of the Due du Chatelet in Portugal; and he was the editor of the Correspondence of Voltaire with Bernis.

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